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Banking and Financial Services Issues

This page offers an easy way for policymakers to access banking and financial services research and analysis that is relevant to current Congressional agendas. For additional information, to request documents, or to arrange a briefing, contact the RAND Office of Congressional Relations at ocr@rand.org or (703) 413-1100 x5643.

Recent Findings

Counterterrorism finance strategies have reduced terrorist access to official currencies. Will terrorist groups therefore increase their use of digital cryptocurrencies? New ones have emerged, including some that claim to be more private and secure than Bitcoin, but they also have limitations that make them less viable.

The government shutdown highlighted the lack of resilience many suffer from when they encounter unexpected economic events. The median American family has been losing ground for decades. Policy responses to address this situation will be complex and difficult, but are much needed.

Millennials are less worried than baby boomers about national security topics and more worried about kitchen table issues, such as making ends meet each month and paying off debts. But this may have less to do with the fact that they are millennials and more to do with the fact that millennials are young.

Most U.S. seniors don't follow the “standard” pattern of retirement. For example, many stay in full- or part-time posts past age 70. Health and economic factors, cognitive abilities, and personality traits can shape Americans' retirement paths.

Briefings

Large-scale data breaches have compromised the identifying information of millions of people. What can policymakers do to improve responses to such breaches, and how can the public protect information that has already been compromised? Lilian Ablon and Sina Beaghley answer these questions and more in a RAND Congressional Briefing.

To inform the debate on whether TRIA should be reauthorized, modified, or allowed to expire, RAND experts will present the findings of their recent work on this topic and address different facets of this complex issue, including the pros and cons of proposed TRIA modifications.

Nick Maynard and Timothy Flacke of the D2D Fund will discuss the value of financial entertainment as an educational tool and demonstrate two video games they developed to teach lessons about financial literacy.

Alerts & Newsletters

In 2017, there were more than one thousand data breaches exposing over a billion records of sensitive data. What's happening to stolen data and how is it being monetized? Lillian Ablon addresses these concerns.

There has been a recent string of large-scale data breaches that have compromised the private information of millions of customers. Lillian Ablon and Sina Beaghley briefed Congressional staff on how the government and breached companies can better protect victims.

Since the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was reauthorized in 2007, terrorism insurance has remained widely available and the price has fallen. With TRIA set to expire in December, however, it is unclear whether improvements in the market since TRIA was first passed in 2002 can be sustained without it.

Policy debates over extending the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act have focused mainly on property insurance, yet certain institutional features of workers' compensation markets could cause the act's expiration to have very different consequences.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act will expire at the end of this year and Congress is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets. In a terrorist attack with losses up to $50 billion, the federal government would spend more helping to cover losses than if it had continued to support a national terrorism risk insurance program.

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The current terrorism risk insurance act will expire in 2014 and Congress again is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets. If the act expires and the take-up rate for terrorism insurance falls, then the U.S. would be less resilient to future terrorist attacks.

Briefs

Most U.S. seniors follow nonstandard retirement pathways. Seniors with better cognitive ability were more likely to follow nonstandard retirement pathways: In a studied sample, 59.1 percent of those with high cognitive ability had a job after age 65.

Interrogatories and depositions in a tort case against a bankrupt firm are less likely to reveal exposure to asbestos in the firm's product than if the case had occurred before the firm filed bankruptcy.

Because spending in retirement tends to decline with age, a new study finds that 71 percent of Americans are adequately prepared for retirement: 81 percent of married persons and 57 percent of single persons. Women are less prepared than men.

Examines the relationship between fair value accounting and historical cost accounting and systemic risk to the financial system, including the role that accounting approaches played in the 2008 and earlier financial crises.

For More Information

Director, Congressional Relations

Jayme Fuglesten is director of Congressional Relations at the RAND Corporation. The Congressional Relations office is charged with disseminating and helping translate RAND's research to policymakers in Congress, helping to ensure greater access to knowledge that is trusted for its objectivity,…

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